Owen Van Natta Out as MySpace CEO

Owen Van Natta, the former Facebook executive who was picked to revive MySpace last April, is stepping down, News Corp (s NWS) just announced. He’ll be replaced by two of his hires lieutenants, Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who now each share the title of co-president, reporting to News Corp digital CEO Jon Miller.

Circumstances around the shake-up aren’t clear yet. Miller was quoted in a press release as basically saying that Van Natta’s personal and professional priorities weren’t in alignment with MySpace. One thing is clear: Running MySpace, and trying to bring it back to relevance, is a tough job.

The only way I can see MySpace turning around is to offer a mind-exploding media experience. Think Boxee on the net. No software, just streams in the browser. Content is emperor right, Rupert? They would never do it, though.

Relevance for Myspace will require a clear and executable focus on being a place to discover great content or be discovered. I’m with Digigal guru when he/she states that they need youth. But age isn’t necessarily the issue, instead, I think it’s a matter of finding an individual who is more of a visionary.

I’m also with Lenley in the sense that the red tape prevents Myspace from being a trend setter in the content discovery space. Even if new executives are to brought in they may lack the authority to execute on anything worthwhile.

Shoot. If I were running Myspace I would make the artists the main focus. WTF? The Myspace homepage doesn’t even focus on the community which is supposed to be powering it!